As one skilled in the art will appreciate, blood pressure in the left ventricle, and in particular left ventricular end diastolic pressure, is a useful physiologic parameter for evaluating and monitoring cardiac performance. This left ventricular pressure can serve useful in predicting the onset of pulmonary edema in congestive heart failure patients, monitoring and treating hypertension, optimizing the operation of cardiac rhythm management devices, and in rhythm discrimination. Unfortunately, the elevated fluid pressures in the left ventricle increase the likelihood of hemorrhage during or following placement of monitoring equipment such as pressure sensors within the left ventricle. Furthermore, because blood flows directly from the left ventricle to other parts of the body, including the brain, the risk of stroke or vessel blockage from thrombi formed in the left ventricle is significant. While pressure measurements within the right ventricle are more easily obtained, and at lower risk than the left ventricle, they are of less use in evaluating cardiac performance.
There is thus a need for a system for obtaining physiologic data relatable to left ventricular end diastolic pressure, from a location less susceptible to trauma than the left ventricle, to control the operation of a remotely located implantable medical device.